VPRE-73 Halloween Edition

About the VPRE-73 Halloween Edition

Inspired by the Neve 1073: the same transformer-driven console preamp that powers our VPRE-73 — same modelled circuit, handed two extra controls for the nights you want it meaner.

The VPRE-73 Halloween Edition is a vintage preamp plugin and a variant of our VPRE-73, not a separate emulation. It's the exact same modelled 1073 signal path — input and output transformers, discrete Class-A preamp, HF high-shelf band — so it colours a signal the same way its everyday sibling does. What sets this edition apart is two genuinely new controls: a Pre Drive multiplier that pushes the saturation far harder than the standard VPRE-73 can, and a sweepable high-pass where the standard model gives you a fixed corner. Same tone at sensible settings, more teeth when you want them.

Same 1073 circuit, meaner intentions

Everything that makes the standard VPRE-73 worth patching in is here. Pre Gain runs +18 to +78dB (continuous rather than stepped, so you can creep the THD up gradually), the Trim spans ±30dB as a clean linear output stage, and the two link together with the right-mouse-drag trick so you can add saturation without the track jumping in level. The HF high-shelf gives you roughly ±15dB of the recognisable 1073 top end. The circuit is modelled with our real-time, SPICE-style simulation and runs at 4x oversampling, so the harmonics move with level exactly as they do on the standard edition. If you know the VPRE-73, you already know how this one behaves before you touch the two new knobs.

What the Halloween Edition adds: Pre Drive and a sweepable high-pass

Two controls make this more than a variant name. Pre Drive is a continuous drive multiplier, sweepable from 1.0x up to 5.0x, that multiplies the level feeding the preamp before the gain stage — push it past the halfway mark and the Class-A saturation goes far harder than the standard VPRE-73's Pre Gain range allows. That's where the extra character lives, and it's genuinely new to this edition. The second addition is a sweepable high-pass: instead of the standard VPRE-73's fixed 80Hz filter, the Halloween Edition gives you an HP Freq selector with Off, 40, 80, 160 and 320Hz positions, so you can carve low end before the drive stage rather than after.

Using the Halloween Edition on drums, guitars and synths

Roll Pre Drive back to 1.0x and you have a straight VPRE-73: fatten a vocal, add iron to a bass DI, glue a drum bus. Turn it up and it becomes a distortion box — chew up drum room mics, melt a synth into a wall of harmonics, or make a guitar snarl in a way the standard preamp won't reach. The sweepable high-pass is the tool that keeps that extra drive from turning to mud: set HP Freq to 160 or 320Hz on a screaming synth and the low end stays defined while the mids do the damage. Everything else — the Phase invert, the Power bypass, the metering — carries straight over from the VPRE-73 you already know.

VPRE-73 Halloween Edition Features

Pre Drive multiplier (1.0x–5.0x)

Exclusive to this edition: Pre Drive is a continuous multiplier that scales the level feeding the preamp from 1.0x up to 5.0x, driving the modelled Class-A stage far harder into saturation than the standard Pre Gain range allows — the source of the edition's aggressive character.

Sweepable HP Freq high-pass

Where the standard VPRE-73 has a fixed 80Hz high-pass, the Halloween Edition adds an HP Freq selector with Off, 40, 80, 160 and 320Hz positions, so you can clean up low end before the drive stage exactly where a source needs it.

Continuous +18 to +78dB Pre Gain

The modelled 1073 preamp stage is continuous rather than stepped, letting you dial transformer saturation and THD in degree by degree — the same gain behaviour as the standard VPRE-73.

Linear Trim with opposite-drag linking

A clean ±30dB linear Trim that adds no harmonics; hold the right mouse button on Pre Gain or Trim and the other follows in reverse, so you can push Pre Drive and Pre Gain hard without the level running away.

1073-style HF high-shelf

The HF high-shelving band lifts or cuts the top end by roughly ±15dB after the preamp stage — the familiar 1073 air, carried over unchanged from the standard edition.

Power, Phase and metering

A Power switch to bypass the plugin, a Phase invert for polarity fixes, and level metering, all carried straight over from the standard VPRE-73's control set.

Authentic circuit emulation

Our real-time, SPICE-type component-based circuit simulation models the same input and output transformers, discrete preamp circuit and HF high-shelf band as the standard VPRE-73, in every nuance.

SSE2-optimised code

DSP operations are pipelined on the SSE2 instruction set for high-performance operation even under complex processing.

Auto-adjusted oversampling

A low-latency, linear-phase Dolph-Chebyshev polyphase design runs 4x oversampling to attenuate aliasing and auto-adjusts to your session's sample rate to save CPU while staying transparent.